


Love Is A Lottery

by isxbella



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: M/M, tenjack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:22:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23465356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isxbella/pseuds/isxbella
Summary: They say love is blind, but that’s not true. Love sees exactly what it’s getting into and decides it’s worth it nonetheless.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Jack Harkness
Kudos: 16





	Love Is A Lottery

**Author's Note:**

> This starts like a proper story but sort of descends into a weird ending. You’ve been warned.

The Doctor and Jack were sleeping when the alarms went off. One moment, Jack was dreaming about the time-lord whose chest he was hugging- and the next he was rudely awoken, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. The Doctor yawned and buried his face in Jack’s shoulder before realising that he probably should go and see what was getting the TARDIS was so upset about.

In a record number of fifty seconds, he was dressed and planted a kiss on his lazy boyfriend’s head, knowing full well Jack would only get up and dressed if there was a planet at risk. Then, the time-lord made his way to the TARDIS’ console, pulled his glasses from his pocket and stared at the screen. 

The TARDIS’ screen displayed a surveillance feed from outside, featuring two people with hands in pockets staring at his TARDIS with no apparent want to dismiss it and walk away. Upon further inspection, the figures were both humanoid and dressed in floor-length coats not unlike the Doctor’s own. In fact, he could’ve sworn that the figure on the left had a coat exactly the same shade of brown as his own. And the one on the left-

This was bad. They couldn’t be him and Jack, they had never done this and would never be stupid enough to. Besides, his Jack had much more muscular shoulders.

“Speak of the Devil,”the Doctor thought aloud as Jack sauntered into the control room. His boyfriend was buttoning up his shirt with a look of annoyance.

“The TARDIS is still making that deafening noise, y’know,”he said grumpily, and the Doctor realised that while he had begun to tune out the sirens, Jack probably would’ve struggled to get back to sleep with them going. 

The Doctor sighed, and Jack came up to join him at the controls. “We have company.”

Jack glanced at the screen and then did a double-take. “That’s not possible, Doctor. Tell me that’s not possible.”

“Apparently,”his boyfriend sighed, runnimg his hands through his stuck-up hair, “it is.”

Both men stared at the figures on the display, until one of them (the one in the brown coat) raised a fist and knocked twice on the TARDIS door, the noise resonating around the control room. The Doctor’s eyes met Jack’s, both of their gazes conveying possible plans and questions to the other.

“Coming!”Jack yelled in the direction of the door, leaning over the Doctor to pick up his coat from where the men had left it the night before. 

“Jack!”the Doctor hissed, grabbing his hand. “You can’t go out there!”

Jack didn’t let go of the Doctor’s hand, just led him towards the door. 

“You’re not going out there!”the time-lord continued to protest. 

Jack laughed. “We’ll be fine. Anyways, I’d like to see you try and stop me.”

As if he’d been waiting for Jack to challenge him, the Doctor launched himself at his boyfriend, their lips connecting with a jolt and causing Jack’s back to hit the TARDIS door. Automatically, Jack moaned into the other man’s mouth and brought the hand that wasn’t holding the Doctor’s up to cup the Doctor’s jaw and deepen the kiss. 

Eventually, Jack pulled back to breathe, and the Doctor began to plant kisses along his jawline. But the men were prevented from going further by another two sharp taps on the TARDIS door, which brought Jack back to the situation they were in. 

Not meeting the Doctor’s eyes, Jack turned around and opened the door with a cheeky grin. “Captain Jack Harkness, what do you fine m- ladies want today?”

“Ladies?”the Doctor demanded, pushing open the second TARDIS door to see for himself. 

“Doctor-“Jack began, squeezing the man’s hand that he was somehow still holding. 

“Oh right,”the Doctor said, tone full of a false realisation. “How rude of me. Sorry. I’m the Doctor. My boyfriend, that’s Jack, says I need to work on my people skills.”

“Five bucks says they were having sex and that’s why they took so long,”the blue-coated woman said in a familiar fifty-first century drawl. 

The woman in the blue coat wore the flirtatious grin and easy confidence that the Doctor recognised immediately to be the same as those as his Jack. Her eyes were the same blue, although her hair was tied up in two chunky plaits. 

But the woman in the brown coat- it was clear who she was. Her brown eyes, the colour of melted chocolate, contained the infinite wisdom only possessed by one individual. 

This woman was the Doctor. 

The Doctor, his Doctor, swallowed. “So you’re me.”

The Other Doctor’s mouth twitched into a smile. “Yes, and this is-“

Her companion interrupted her. “Captain Jacquie Harkness.”

The Doctor’s eyes twinkled. “Don’t you dare even think about it, I’m with him.” 

Jack smiled as the Doctor stepped closer to him, their hands still intertwined. But then he saw the Other Doctor’s raised eyebrow, his heart sunk on behalf of his female counterpart.

“In your universe,”he says quietly, turning to face Jacquie, “what happens after the year that never was?”

He heard his Doctor inhale sharply, but he kept his eyes trained on Jacquie. 

Jacquie’s confidence faltered for a brief second before she responded. “The Doctor goes off, I stay to work with Torchwood. We don’t meet for another fifty years, give or take a few years.”

“You didn’t come back for her?”

Jack was surprised to find it wasn’t his voice, but his boyfriend’s. The Doctor looked like he was so furious he could hit his counterpart. 

“I see we’ve identified a difference between our timelines,”the Other Doctor said, unfazed. “Now would you kindly turn your attention to the manner at hand? We need to get back to our universe.”

“No,”the Doctor corrected, “you want to go back. They’re different things.”

“Are you going to help me or will I have to hijack your TARDIS?”

Jack stepped protectively in front of the Doctor and their TARDIS. “He won’t shoot you, but I will.”

Jacquie sighed. “Not that your little argument isn’t entertaining, but our Earth needs us. We were pulled right out of a dalek invasion.”

The Doctor and Jack shared another look. They had to get the Other Doctor home to save her Earth as soon as possible, as neither of them wanted to condemn that Earth. However they had no idea where to start. 

Jack didn’t like the plan they eventually decided on, as he had to let go of the Doctor’s hand, but it was the most effective way to get rid of the Other Doctor. She and his Doctor were to go in a hunt for cracks in reality to send her back through, and Jack would talk to Jacquie.

Jacquie Harkness had met the Doctor in the same way Jack had, and- like him- had not hesitated to give her heart away. However, her Doctor- unlike his- had never loved her back. They hadn’t kissed on Satellite Five. She had almost left Jacquie on the futuristic Earth. She never thanked Jacquie for taking bullets for her. 

And it scared Jack. How easily he could’ve been Jacquie, how easily his life could’ve been torn to shreds, how much one little person mattered to him. 

He just wished the Other Doctor had loved Jacquie back, or that he could in any way help her through it. But Jack hadn’t got over the Doctor in the hundred years after he’d abandoned him on Satellite Five, so he knew there was no chance he could pass on any wisdom to Jacquie- or that she’d listen to it anyway.

They say love is blind, but that’s not true. Love sees exactly what it’s getting into and decides it’s worth it nonetheless. 

Because, above all, love is a lottery. And as the Doctor burst into the room to tell Jack his brilliant discovery, Jack thanked the stars he got lucky.


End file.
